Loading machine



March 21,1939. O NE 2,151,571

LOADING MACHINE Filed Sept. 10, 1957 Patented Mar. 21, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application September 10, 1937, Serial No. 163,173

3 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in loading machines of the type adapted to gather and load coal at the working face of a mine and more particularly to the gathering head for initially picking up; the loose material and loading it onto a flight conveyer for discharge into a mine car or the like.

More specifically, the present invention is an improvement in the general form of gathering head disclosed in a prior application Serial No. 108,360, filed by me on October 30, 1936, which issued as Patent No. 2,143,092 on January 10, 1939.

The principal objects of my invention are to provide a simple, more compact and efficient construction of gathering head of the character described especially adapted for loading coal in mines.

In carrying out my invention I provide a reduced clearance between the gathering arms and conveyer flights, and clear material on the conveyer from the gathering arms and prevent said arms from hindering the flow of material along the conveyer by arranging the flights and. gathering arms in a certain spaced relationship with respect to each other and synchronizing the conveyer flights with the slower moving gathering arms so that a conveyer flight and gathering arm will simultaneously pass by the zone of the discharge edge of the apron and the conveyer flights will carry material away from each related gathering arm, and by diverging the paths of the gathering arms from the sides of the conveyer as they extend upwardly therealong so the gathering arms will be moved away from the sides of the conveyer before the next succeeding flights catch up with them.

Other objects of my invention will appear from time to time as the accompanying specification proceeds.

My invention may be more clearly understood with reference to the accompanying drawing wherein:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a loading head with the rear portion of the elevating conveyer broken away;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view taken substantially along line 2-2 of Figure l; and

Figure 3 is a detail'fragmentary transverse sectional view showing certain details of the drive to the gathering mechanism.

In the embodiment of my invention illustrated in the drawing, the gathering and loading element 'is' mounted at theforward end of an inclined elevating conveyer it, which as usual is carried by and projects from the forward end of a mobile truck (not shown) having suitable power operating and control devices which need not be shown or described in detail herein as the present invention is directed particularly to the construction of the gathering and loading element itself.

The inclined conveyer frame 10 includes a trough like conveyer frame section 5 I, and a forward gathering section 12 connected thereto in a suitable manner, which gathering section has an apron 13 extending laterally along opposite sides of the conveyer and forwardly across the forward end thereof to the ground.

The conveyer section i 1 includes a plate 15 extending therealong which forms a surface along which material may be moved by transversely extending flights 16, It carried between suitable parallel spaced endless chains ll, H at intervals therealong. Said conveyer section is provided with a pair of upright side plates 19, it which define the main body ofthe conveyer trough and extend downwardly beneath the bottom plate 15 to provide a support means for the moving parts of the conveyer and for the drive means for the gathering mechanism. Said side plates are also flared outwardly at opposite sides of said conveyer section to form a trough like frame along which material may be moved.

The gathering mechanism includes a pair of 1 endless chains 20, 2t guided for orbital movement about chain guiding members 2|, 2!. Said chain guiding members are mounted directly on the upper surface of the apron l3 and extend rearwardly along the conveyer from a point disposed forwardly of the forward end thereof and guide said chains for movement upwardly along the sides of the conveyer in laterally diverging paths. A series of spaced apart laterally projecting gathering arms or flights 24, 24 is mounted on said chains for limited pivotal movement with respect theretoin a plane parallel to the plane of said apron. Each of said gathering arms is pivotally mounted between a pair of parallel spaced projections 23, 23 which project laterally from certain links of said chain.

Each gathering arm. 24 is guided to extend ahead of the apron i3 at its forward turning point and is of a pick or hook shaped formation having an outer pick pointed cutting end 25 and a convexly formed gathering face which is inclined upwardly and rearwardly from 'the bottom thereof. Snubbing cutters. 2T, 21 are likewise provided on said armsto dislodge tightly wedged coaland to cut clearance for'the gathering head in tight or unsevered coal. Said cutters project upwardly and forwardly from the upper side of said gathering arms and are disposed adjacent the inner ends of said arms. Said gathering arms may thus gather loose coal ahead of the apron l3 and break down and gather coal in front of said apron which is tightly wedged between the mine roof and bottom or coal which has been unsevered during the shooting operation.

The endless chains 20, 20 are trained around sprockets 29, 29 at their upper turning point. Each of said sprockets is mounted on a shaft 30 which is shown as being perpendicular to the apron l3 and is journaled in the upper portion of the chain guide 2| in a suitable manner. A bevel gear 3| is secured to the lower end of said shaft for driving said shaft. Said bevel gear is driven from a bevel pinion 32 on a transverse shaft 33. A sprocket 34 is secured to the inner end of said shaft and is driven from an endless drive chain 35. Said endless drive chain is in turn driven from the shaft which drives the conveyer chains 11, I! through a suitable arrangement of chains and sprockets in a manner similar to that disclosed in a prior application Serial No. 88,525, filed by me on July 2, 1936, which issued as Patent No. 2,113,630 on April 12, 1938.

With reference now in particular to the novel arrangement of gathering arms and conveyer flights for freeing the gathering arms from material on the conveyer and preventing them from interfering with the flow of material along the conveyer, the gathering arms and conveyer flights are synchronized to pass by the zone of the discharge edge of the apron at substantially the same time. This is efiected by driving the conveyer at a relatively high speed and providing a reduction between the sprockets 34 and bevel pinions 32 and bevel gears 3| which is such that the speed of travel of the gathering arms is half the speed of the conveyer, and by synchronizing the arms and conveyer flights so that as a gathering arm approaches the discharge edge of the apron across the front of the conveyer a conveyer flight will approach from beneath and behind the arm at substantially the same time. In order to synchronize the conveyer flights with the gathering arms said gathering arms are spaced along their respective gathering chains in the same spaced relationship as the flights l6, l6 of said conveyer and the gathering arms of one chain are arranged alternately with respect to those on the opposite chain so that one arm on one chain will be ahead of the opposite arm on the opposite chain a distance equal to half the distance between the flights of the conveyer. Thus, the conveyer being driven at twice the speed of the gathering arms, as each gathering arm approaches the discharge edge of the apron l3, a conveyer flight will simultaneously approach said discharge edge from beneath and behind the arm. Each conveyer flight moving at twice the speed of the gathering arm will thus carry material away from the hook shaped gathering face of the arm before the arm turns away from the conveyer and said conveyer flights will thus remove material from the arms and prevent them from carrying material beyond the sides of the conveyer.

Since the chain guides diverge laterally from the conveyer as they extend upwardly therealong they guide the gathering arms in paths which diverge from the conveyer and thus guide them away from the sides of the conveyer before they reach the position where they turn away from the conveyer. The relationship between this diverging angle of the gathering arms and the spacing and speed of the arms and conveyer flights is such that the gathering arm ahead of the arm which delivers material onto the conveyer will have moved entirely away from the conveyer by the time the flight behind catches up with it. Each gathering arm, having the material which it has gathered and moved upwardly along the apron and over its discharge edge. onto the conveyer taken away from it by a conveyer flight passing beneath said arm at substantially the same time material is delivered onto the conveyer, will thus be moved out of the path of the conveyer flights in such a manner that the next succeeding flight cannot catch up with it, which will prevent the gathering arms from hindering the flow of material along the conveyer.

While I have herein shown and described one form in which my invention may be embodied, it will be understood that the construction thereof and the arrangement of the various parts may be altered without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. Furthermore, I do not wish to be construed as limiting myself to the specific embodiment illustrated, excepting as it may be limited in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a gathering and loading element, in combination, an elevating conveyer including an endless chain having laterally extending flights disposed at intervals therealong, an apron extending forwardly of the forward end of said conveyer to the ground and rearwardly along opposite sides of said conveyer and having a discharge edge extending across the forward end of said conveyer, endless chains on the upper side of said apron and guided for movement along opposite sides of said conveyer in paths diverging laterally away from said conveyer as they extend upwardly therealong, gathering arms projecting laterally from said endless chains in the same spaced relation as said flights, and a geared drive connection to said endless chains for synchronizing the speed of said chains with that of said conveyer in such a manner that said gathering arms are driven to travel at substan tially half the speed of said conveyer so that each gathering arm approaches the discharge edge of said apron at substantially the same time a flight passes thereby and so that each gathering arm is laterally beyond the sides of said conveyer before it turns away from the conveyer and the next succeeding flight catches up with it.

2. In a gathering and loading element, in combination, an elevating conveyer including an endless chain having laterally extending flights disposed at intervals therealong, an apron extending forwardly of the forward end of said conveyer to the ground and rearwardly along opposite sides of said conveyer and having a discharge edge extending across the forward end of said conveyer, endless chains on the upper side of said apron and guided for movement along opposite sides of said conveyer in paths diverging laterally away from said conveyer as they extend upwardly therealong, gathering arms projecting laterally from said endless chains in the same spaced relation as said flights, said gathering arms on one chain being alternately arranged with respect to those on the other chain so that the distance between opposite gathering arms will be half the distance between the flights of said conveyer, and a drive connection -to said endless chains for driving said chains at half the speed of said conveyer and synchronizing said gathering arms with said conveyer so that each gathering arm and conveyer flight approaches the zone of the discharge edge of said apron at substantially the same time and so that each gathering arm is laterally beyond the sides of the conveyer chain before it turns away from the conveyer and the next succeeding flight catches up with it.

3. In a material gathering element for loading machines, an elevating conveyer including a pair of spaced endless chains having flights disposed therebetween at definite intervals therealong, an apron extending along opposite sides of said conveyer and across the forward end thereof and forwardly therefrom to the ground, a pair of chain guides mounted on the upper side of said apron, each of said chain guides extending upwardly along one side of said conveyer in diverging relationship With respect thereto, endless chains having gathering arms projecting laterally therefrom, guided for movement about said chain guides, said gathering arms being spaced along said chains in the same spaced relation as said flights and being alternately arranged on opposite chains, and having forwardly curved gathering and retreating sides to gather the loose material and. move it onto said conveyer and provide an uninterrupted flow of material along the conveyer, and synchronized drive connections to said conveyer and said gathering chains to drive said conveyer at twice the speed of said gathering chains so that each gathering arm will approach the zone of the discharge edge of said apron at substantially the same time as a conveyer flight, and so that each gathering arm will be beyond the lateral boundaries of the flights of said conveyer before it turns away from the conveyer, and before the next succeeding flight catches up with it.

WILLIAM W. SLOANE. 

